“Ha! You think you’d bring in as much as me, little brother?”
The warm look in my brother’s eyes and the joking tone of his words feels like before.Before...everything.
“So, they sent us to Russia. It wasn’t long after we got there that we found out what was really going on. It was a hunt. For us. They gave us a one-hour head start. It wasn’t really a head start, though. We had shoes and the clothes on our backs. They had long range rifles and cameras set up all over the grounds. We went through the best we could and took out each one we saw. Eventually, we decided it was best to split up, so the hunters had to do the same. We made it several days. They started with a group of fifteen. There are none left to tell the tale today, but I never found Samuel. We were supposed to meet three clicks South after the last man fell. I waited, but he never came. I knew they’d be coming for my family once they realized I was alive. It took more time than expected to get transport out of the country. Once I got here, I came straight for Abbi and Abel. Then, Mom. You were already gone. I loaded up everything from the armory and had Abbi erase the cameras for the last few days for both places. Everyone was...surprised to see me. We hid out at the escape and waited for you to get back.”
The escape. Of course, that’s where they were.I was so focused on the Latvians, I didn’t even think about our retreat spot.
“By the time you got back, I had found out enough to know that they were already here.”
“You didn’t call me.”
“I wasn’t sure that I could. By then, I knew they had Grizzly. I didn’t have an enormous tech whiz at my disposal. I love you, brother. You know that, but I couldn’t do anything that would put my family at risk. Your phone could have been monitored, so I just watched you and your people from afar. I couldn’t risk being seen. I could’ve led them right back to my family. To my wife and my son.”
“I get it. You did the right thing. You saved our asses in there.” I turn to look at Abbi. “You too.” Abel spent years honing Abbi’s skills. She can shoot, fight hand to hand, hunt for food, and build a shelter out of next to nothing. She’s basically a mix of Disney’s Mulan and Sarah Connor from the Terminator.Total badass.
“Yeah. Well, that’s kind of my job as the older brother.”
“Three fucking minutes.”
“Might as well be years. Damn brat.”
He’s honed in on Vaughn, sitting in my lap. They met briefly before cleanup got in full swing, but they haven’t had a chance to get to know one another. Eve and I have been glued to her side.
“Yeah. Well, you’ve met my wife. And you two will have the rest of your lives to catch up. She’s promised me a trip to the ER and an x-ray. After that, we’re going home. Together. Alone.”
Abel’s slow smile stretches the scar on his stern face. Somehow, we’ve always had the same face, but mine is anything but serious, and his is no nonsense.
“Never thought I’d see the day.”
“Well, we can’t all find our soulmate at seventeen.”
“Yeah. Well, you definitely tried enough of them out to be-”
“That’s quite enough. We will be going now.” I don’t allow Vaughn the chance to stand on her own as I cradle her in my arms and stand with her held tightly against my body. Abel just smiles and shakes his head as I walk out the door with my wife.
My wife does indeed have three cracked ribs. Experience told me before the doctor did that there isn’t much to be done for cracked ribs. She also has a concussion, and a loose fucking tooth. When I say there will be no one left to send a message to, I mean there will be no descendants remaining of the pieces of shit who had any involvement in what happened to my wife.
The only thing she seems to be too upset about is her face and the loose tooth.My wife. Vain to the end.
It’s been three days since the incident, and while we can’t seem to get rid of everyone else, we haven’t seen much of my brother or his family. That’s perfectly understandable, though. He hasn’t seen his little boy in a year, and his wife...well, he rarely let her out of his sight before he went a year with her thinking him dead. I can’t imagine that we will be spending regular time with them for a while still.
The past three days have been full of revelations, however. With Adam’s permission, Eve filled me in on what I already suspected about Adam’s family. His father was born into very meager circumstances. Despite that, he made a name for himself early on within the Dallas crime scene. He caught the attention of an organization that dealt in all manner of trade. Drugs, sex, gambling. You name it. They didn’t deal in the unwilling, and that’s all that Adam’s dad cared about at the time.
Even his first marriage was formed in the interest of the ‘family’. Her parents were very influential politically and could grease the wheels that needed turned. There was a pretty significant incident in Adam and Ada’s teen years that resulted in their biological mother leaving. There has apparently been no contact between them since then. Eve didn’t get into the specifics of that event, and I saw no reason to probe further.
Adam and Ada’s father met his current wife shortly after their mother left. This is when he started making a more concentrated effort in expanding his more respectable business ventures. Ergo, Davenport Financial Group expanded into the multi-billion-dollar empire it is today.
The oddest thing about the entire tale is that Adam and Ada’s father actually took their biological mother’s name when they married. She’s a Davenport.Old money.He did this so that his children would have the chance to shed the stigma created by their father’s less credible business dealings. It worked, too. They both attend Eden University, home of the Davenport Library, on full athletic and academic scholarships.
Truly, I just wanted to confirm my suspicions as to how Adam, Cal, and Cotton became so proficient at dealing with things left of the law without batting an eye. Eve provided that and so much more. Cal and Cotton have been Adam’s best friends...brothers, even, since childhood. Adam’s dad basically raised Cal, from what I hear. If Adam was in it, so were Cal and Cotton.
There are still a few things that we’ve yet to uncover, however. For instance,how did Eve’s dad find her? Is he even really her dad? Did his arrival have anything to do with Paul Hastings attacking her on the street?The timing of it all seems a little too convenient. Vaughn and I have agreed that we aren’t going to do anymore digging into Eve’s past unless Eve is at our side with a shovel. In spite of the many questions we still have, it’s her life.Her story to uncover or leave buried.
EPILOGUE
Vaughn
As wonderful as it is to be back in Barbados, it’s even more wonderful to be here with friends. Something happened between my trio of men and Eve’s trio of men at that industrial park in San Antonio.Well technically, Eli is Eve’s too, but he’s definitely more mine, and she has a trio, so...whatever...irrelevant. Eli, Jax, and Marshall are now all broey with Adam, Cal, and Cotton.It’s weird, but good weird.Everyone still behaves exactly the same as before but, now they like each other despite their differences.
